Echoes Across Time
by Candyspell
Summary: He sent her away, through time and space, so that he could save her. A decade has passed and now she's back. He knows that he can never be apart from her again. [Rin x Sesshomaru. R&R]
1. Lost Girl

_Chapter 1: Lost Girl_

* * *

"She can have a better life in my time. There is medicine, education, a woman can become anything she wants in my time."

As he looked upon the sickly girl, he had to trust that Kagome's words were true. Trust had never been something that came easily to him. He considered the possibilities, the inevitabilities, the outcomes. He weighed them all within the span of a half second. There could be only one choice to make when it came to Rin's safety. Then, Lord Sesshomaru rose from Rin's bedside and nodded in Kagome's direction.

"Who will take care of her?" Sesshomaru asked.

"My mother, my brother, and my grandfather. But Sesshomaru… she won't remember you or this place. She will wake up in Tokyo and she won't remember any of it. She will believe herself to be a normal girl, living out her days in the future."

A girl out of time. His brother's beloved knew all about that and she seemed to have adapted to it fine. If this was the only way Rin could survive the fever that had taken its hold on her, then so be it. There was really no decision to be made.

"Send her then. And be done with it."

Sesshomaru left the small village that night, left Rin in the care of her own kind, and he only looked back miles and days later, when it truly hit him: he would never see Rin again.

* * *

"Rin! Wake up! You're going to be late for school!"

The girl's dark brown eyes fluttered open and she arched her back and extended her arms above her head into a deep yawning stretch. She lay in her bed for awhile and stared up at the ceiling. She'd had that dream again. The one with the dog. It stood in a snow storm, that impossibly large red eyed dog with only three legs. Blood dripped from its teeth. It would stare at her until she began to run towards it then it would howl and that's when she woke up. She'd been having the dream more and more these days. Always getting closer to the dog with its every appearance in that blustering storm. But she never reached it. She never understood why she would want to. The beast was massive and vicious. It should have frightened her but all she ever wanted was to reach it. It was a strange sort of dream.

"Rin!" Her aunt's voice cut through the heavy silence of her contemplation and she sat up and moaned.

School. Right.

Rin went about getting ready for her day. She could hear her grandfather downstairs. He was an old man, almost ninety, but he was still sharp as sharp could be. He said it was from all the blessings he performed at the temple and that she too should offer her blessings too. For some reason, her aunt would always glare at him. She hated when he tried to involve her in his temple stuff. Rin wasn't even allowed to go near the shrines. One of them had even been chained shut with a heavy padlock. She had always just assumed it was dangerous. Her aunt's daughter, Rin's cousin, beautiful and preserved only by the pictures of her throughout the house, had disappeared and Rin had always thought it had something to do with the well hidden in one of the shrines. Kagome, had been her name.

There was a firm knock on the door. "Rin. Get your shit together and come on! Mom has breakfast for you." Sota. Her cousin and Kagome's brother. He and Rin did not get on, but Rin could understand why. She now slept in the room that had been his sisters and she didn't think he'd ever truly gotten over her loss. Rin was too much of a private person to ever have asked for details about his feelings or even about what had happened. She just knew that Kagome was gone, he was the only one in the household who hadn't moved passed it, and Sota seemed to look at her now and only see his missing sister.

By the time Rin had made it downstairs, wearing her high school uniform, Sota had gone to work and only her grandfather and her aunt remained at the breakfast table.

"Smells good! Thank you, Auntie H!" She kissed the woman who had raised her on the cheek and sat in at breakfast, laughing as her grandfather snored beside her.

She ate quietly while her aunt leaned against the table and watched her. As she ate, she thought about her dream. Her brow furrowed, but her aunt didn't pry. That's what Rin loved most about her. She was a patient woman, kinder than anyone, and she never intruded on Rin's thoughts unless invited.

"I've been thinking a lot about something," Rin said suddenly.

"Oh? About the university exam results? I'm sure you did fine!" Mrs. Higurashi replied.

There was silence for a time until Rin shook her head. "No. It's not that… well it is that… But…"

"When you were a child, you used to be quite different. You were always so curious, so playful. You had many friends and seemed very popular with the other children. But now, I don't see that child anymore. I see a beautiful young woman, who seems to carry with her a huge burden of troubles and worries. You barely sleep. You're distant…"

Rin looked down at her half eaten plate of breakfast. This was also why she was so fond of her aunt. She could assemble all the difficult pieces of her life and put them into perspective at the right moments.

"That's true… I find myself often seeing people, people my age, and I don't connect with them anymore. I don't even want to go to university. Even though that's what Kaiba and my other friends are excited about." She paused. "I know this doesn't make sense, but I don't feel like anything in this world will ever satisfy me."

Her aunt's expression changed suddenly, becoming a mixture of something Rin didn't truly understand. She brushed a comforting hand through Rin's hair and smiled, tearfully.

"I'm sorry! You must think I'm so ungrateful. After my parents died, you raised me. You are my mother and I love you. You know that right?" Rin hugged her aunt and then glanced up at the wall at the clock and jumped.

"Oh gosh! I'm gonna be late! Um… t-thanks for hearing me out! I'm sure everything will work itself out!" Rin hopped up and kissed her grandfather on the forehead on the way out the door, rousing him from his sleep.

"Have a good day at school, Kagome!" he gargled, falling almost instantly back asleep. It was often that Rin was confused for her cousin. She slept in her room, she wore some of her old clothes, for an old man like her grandfather, who was often confused and sometimes drifted between past and present, there really was very little difference when it came to Rin's appearance.

Rin grinned a little bit awkwardly at the mistake and her aunt laughed gently, though her eyes did seem to be saddened just a bit. Rin grabbed her book bag and lunch and ran out the door, returning a few seconds later to also grab the wooden sword hanging by the door. "I'll be late coming home! Kendo practice! Bye!"

As Rin ran down the path to school, Mrs. Higurashi stood by the window and stared at the girl who was like a second daughter to her. She watched her thick braid bounce behind her and disappear with her around the corner.

"She's going to figure it out soon," Grandfather piped up. "We knew Kagome's priestess powers would only hold if Rin would let them. She's too willful. She will remember her old life soon. And if she doesn't, well... these things have a way of undoing themselves," His eyes, addled with lines and age, were clear as day.

"You don't know that," she replied. But deep down, she knew it was true.


	2. Dog Girl

_Chapter 2: Dog Girl_

* * *

Rin ran the familiar path to school, leaping over a set of low fences and cutting through a deserted shopping mall that was only busy during tourist seasons. She was a block away when she heard voices and a pitiful howl that stopped her in her tracks. She glanced at her watch and swore under her breath. She didn't have time for this. If she were late again… There was another howl and this one sounded even more pain-ridden than the first, accompanied by laughter. She looked again longingly towards the path to school and veered from it. She followed the rowdy voices, the cries of a creature in pain, and came across a group of boys throwing rocks at a scruffy dog.

"Hey!" She snuck up on one of the bigger boys, grabbing his wrist before he could pitch another rock. She startled them. But before they could tell her to buzz off, she drew her wooden sword and brought it ruthlessly down on the boy's arm. He screamed in pain. The others took one look at her, dropped their rocks and took off. The boy wriggled in her vice grip hold on him, but she was older, bigger, and stronger than he was.

"So what, you think you can just pick on an innocent animal? You think that's really cool don't you?"

"I'm sorry! I swear I won't do it again!" He squealed and the more he fought her, the tighter she gripped him.

Rin looked at the dog who was now growling at the boy, teeth bared. She looked from dog to boy and for a second, was tempted to beat the boy within an inch of his miserable life. She'd always loved dogs. She was the type of person who watched one of those puppy mill pity videos and was angry for two days after. The dog barked and she realized that the boy was crying, begging her to let him go. She obliged and roughly pushed him to the ground, wildly aiming a misplaced kick at his head, he scrambled to his feet and started running.

"If I see you or your friends around here again, you're going to wish you had never been born. Got it?" The boy was gone by the time her wooden sword was back in the carrier on her back. She bent down and extended her hand to the dog. He growled at her as though he were expecting her to hurt him too, but eventually he quieted.

"I won't hurt you," she said earnestly. His growls eased to whimpers and then he gently nudged her extended fingers with his cold, wet nose. The dog didn't linger, but instead turned and trotted off, his tail wagging tail wagging.

She glanced at her watch again and swore (again) before taking off at a sprint to school. Now, she was very late.

Stupid dog. But still, as she arrived at school, Rin was smiling.

* * *

Detention. Again.

Honestly, at this point Rin was used to clapping together chalk brushes and scrubbing down classrooms. She was an alright student, brighter than most but not all of her peers. But she had a penchant for trouble. She wasn't afraid of bullies, so she was always getting in fights. She didn't always pay attention in class, so she was constantly getting called on by the teacher. She usually knew the answers, but she hated being talked to like an idiot, so she often accompanied her responses with insults. On top of that, she was constantly late and this morning she'd been late again. She hadn't tried to explain to her teacher, Mr. Miyoshi, why she'd been late, she just took her the punishment and sat down in her place at the back of the class.

Now, she carried buckets of dirty water under both arms to the courtyard walking down a long corridor and pushing the door to outside open with her shoulder. She didn't mind the work or that it kept her out of kendo practice. She was already the best in the club anyways and mostly everyone just got her to spar with others who were training for tournaments. So she did her detention in peace, and thought more about her dream.

As she emptied the buckets outside, she noticed something in the grass a few feet away from her. It glistened and shone in the light of the fading day. She dropped the buckets and tiptoed barefoot, as she almost always liked to be, through the grass towards the mysterious object. She extended her hand and picked it up.

"Huh. An arrow head." She turned it over between her fingers. It was fossilized, only instead of stone it looked as though it were made of some sort of black glass. She put it in her palm, turning it over a few times, and then was distracted by her friend, Kaiba, calling to her from a second story window.

"Hey! Rin! Sensei said we could go soon! Wanna hangout for awhile?"

She put the arrowhead away into her pocket and it was all but forgotten by the time she and Kaiba left school together. Inside her pocket, the arrowhead pulsed with dark energy, refusing to be forgotten for long.

* * *

Rin and Kaiba had been best friends since she had moved in with her aunt. Kaiba's parents were caretakers of the public gardens and they lived not far from the shrines. Kaiba was tall, much taller than her, and if she was the troublemaking sort she most certainly learned it from him. He was popular with girls because of his uncommonly light eyes and scruffy hair. Rin always told him he looked prettier than she did. To which he'd often respond with some completely vulgar remark about her own looks. That was what usually landed them both in detention. They were thick as thieves, the very best of friends. Kaiba had many other friends at school, but Rin only had him and only because he had declared they'd be together forever when they'd been children. When Rin was feeling distant and lonely, Kaiba was always there to pull her back to the real world, whether she wanted to go or not.

"You know, you didn't have to land yourself in detention just cause I had to go. It's annoying," Rin muttered into the rice ball Kaiba had bought for her. They walked along the neon-lit streets. It was past dark, but they had never really had curfews to abide by.

He grinned his wolfish smile, walking along happily beside her with his arms resting behind his head. "What? Not like I did it for you or anything! If I'm not diligent Mr. Miyoshi won't have any excitement in his life. He'll go soft on us!"

"And we wouldn't want that," Rin replied sarcastically.

"We wouldn't want that." Same words, different tone entirely.

Kaiba lit a cigarette, Rin finished her rice ball, and they cut across the street towards the park where they had played as children. It was a little alcove in the midst of suburbia, completely secluded and forgotten by public maintenance. The grass was long and uncut. The swing sets were rusted. It was their hideout. She sat on the wooden swings and pulled her wooden sword from her back to rest it in her lap.

Kaiba pushed her with one hand while he finished his cigarette with the other. She swayed gently moving back and forth like a pendulum for awhile until she dug her heels into the ground.

"What's with you lately, kid?" He tossed his cigarette into the sand and sat on the other swing beside her. The swing set creaked in protest under their weight. "You're hardly any fun. Did you bomb the entrance exams? I aced mine… You can probably rewrite. I'll actually help you study this time."

It was no secret that Kaiba was some sort of genius. He never took anything seriously and Rin had never so much as seen him open a book to study. But every time they had a test, if Kaiba bothered to write it, he always passed with top marks. It made their teachers insane. They were always saying Kaiba had such potential and that it was wasted on him. Sometimes she agreed.

"No. I did fine. I passed. That's not it. Kaiba… I think my aunt is lying to me."

"Parents lie all the time. Auntie Higurashi is no different," he replied.

"I don't think my parents died in a fire."

He stopped swinging. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh." Rin pulled the arrowhead from her pocket and played with it in her hands, nervous to be telling this stuff to anyone. "It's just… I couldn't find any record of my parents dying in a fire. I looked. Nothing! Not only that, but I've never seen a picture of them. My aunt says they're buried in Europe where they died so it's not like I can visit their graves. I don't have a birth certificate. I can't remember where I lived before the shrine."

"So what? Maybe your birth certificate burned with the fire. Maybe your parents liked their privacy." His serious tone took on a playful one after that. "What, you do you think that you were beamed down here from outer space? Personally, I think you're too cute to be from outer space, but maybe you're just one of those shifter alien types that can adapt to their immediate surroundings to blend in. Maybe you actually have three tits!"

"And maybe you're a fucking idiot! This isn't a joke Kaiba! I keep having this dream and something doesn't feel right! I think there's something- Ow!" She had clenched her hand around the arrowhead. Her fingers had twitched towards it subconsciously. When she had grabbed a hold of it, it sliced into her palm. It was still sharp.

"What's the matter now? Hey. You're bleeding! Dammit, let me see your hand!" Kaiba hopped up from his swing and knelt down in the sand before her, taking her injured hand into his. His fingers were soft, warm, and gentle. Rin opened her hand, palm upwards, and was surprised to see that the arrowhead had disappeared. The only indication that it had ever been there was the diamond-shaped gash in her palm. "How'd you do that, huh? You gotta be more careful, Rin." He made to rip the cuff of his sleeve off. She tried to stop him but the fabric tore and before she could protest, he was wrapping it around her hand, binding the wound.

"Your mom's gonna kill you for showing up with another written off uniform," Rin said under her breath.

"Yeah? Well you'll just have to repay me for it I guess." He let go of her hand and remained crouched before her. His hands wandered to her thighs and rested there a second as though he were about to use her as a support to stand himself back upright. But he stopped when their faces passed each other. He looked at her and she looked at him. It felt natural. It felt like breathing. So Rin leaned forward and kissed him. This was her first kiss.

Rin felt love for Kaiba and she assumed it was the kind that people wrote about in songs. She loved his warmth and his smile, his courage and his brash heart. She loved that he made her laugh and he wasn't bad to look at either. He seemed perfect. Yet as their lips touched and he told her that she was beautiful, that he loved her, she only smiled and kissed him again. It felt strange to say that she loved him in that way. She realized she'd feel guilty if she said it but she didn't know why.

Later that night, after Kaiba had walked her home and promised to give her a call the next morning, Rin lay restless and awake in bed. She sat up and gathered her thick, waist length hair and began to plait it into its usual messy french braid style. She tugged some pieces loose and got up from her bed. She looked out the window down towards the small building which housed the shrine. The one with the well. She was supposed to stay away from it. Her grandfather cited evil spirits but her aunt had told her that it needed repairs and that it might collapse on her. She'd never been allowed inside. A few times she had wandered in and that well had called to her. It radiated some sort of strange energy and she longed to go to it. After her aunt had caught her in there a few times, the door had been boarded up. It had seemed like an extreme measure. If it was so dangerous, why hadn't they just demolished it?

As she stared out the window, she heard someone outside of her bedroom door, listening. So she crawled back into bed and lay there for awhile until whoever was on the other side of her door, probably her aunt, had gone back to bed.

Tomorrow, she decided, she was going to see what was inside that shrine. What was so special about that well? And why did it want her to go inside so badly?


	3. Through the Well

_Chapter 3: Through the Well_

* * *

"Are you out of your mind? No way!"

Rin and Kaiba stood out front of the shrine door. Rin held an axe and offered it to him imploringly.

"I thought you didn't believe in ghosts and spirits and stuff," Rin chided.

"Doesn't mean I want to deface a centuries old shrine, Rin! Can't we just like, go to the movies or something? When you said you wanted to spend the day together, I kind of thought you meant a date!"

She really hadn't expected resistance. Incredulous disbelief, sure. But Kaiba, with his upper arm strength, was her best bet of getting into the shrine and he was refusing to do it. They didn't have long either. Sota was at work. Mrs. Higurashi was out running errands. Grandfather had fallen asleep drinking his tea. She didn't have time for resistance. She needed cooperation.

"Come on! It's sort of like a date! Please?" She batted her eyelashes at him, a nasty trick she'd been using to get him to do her bidding since they were kids. It proved its continued effectiveness. She held the axe up to him and he took it with a groan.

"Some date. Listen, I'm making a tiny hole so you can look through to see what's inside. That's it, kid. And if any demons come to haunt me I'm sending them your way."  
She smiled and nodded and he pulled the axe back and swung. But instead of going through the door, the axe's head hit something like an invisible wall and sent them both flying backwards. A sound rang out, a high-pitched ringing sound, like glasses clinking together. The force that emitted from whatever the axe had hit knocked Rin and Kaiba both off their feet. They crumpled into a pile on the ground. The invisible barrier shattered the axe into a thousand little splinters.

"Ow…" Rin groaned as she sat up. What had happened? She looked, dazed, at the unbroken door and then glanced at her friend. She panicked when she realized that Kaiba wasn't moving.

"Kaiba! Kaiba!" She cried frantically shaking him. He muttered for her to fuck off and she knew he was just a little stunned. She examined his head and realized that he must have whacked it pretty hard against the stone steps leading up to the house. There was a pretty big lump forming beneath his wily mess of hair. She smiled, sighing with relief, and looked back at the shrine. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She pulled herself up off the ground. Her bones ached. Whatever had pushed them backwards had been seriously powerful. Maybe the shrine was guarded by demons after all. Invisible ones. But Rin didn't believe in demons. She didn't believe in anything at all.  
She approached the shrine and extended a hand towards the padlocked door. She expected for it to rest against whatever invisible force had met the axe. But nothing stopped her from resting her hand against the door's old wooden frame. The palm of her hand itched beneath the fresh bandage she'd wrapped around her wound this morning. She had pulled loose the cloth that Kaiba had given to her and looked at it fondly. She had washed the cloth and tucked it into her bedside table, feeling a little embarrassed by her own sentimentality. That's what girlfriends did, wasn't it?

She glanced back at Kaiba, still splayed out on the ground, and when she whipped her head back around she found that the lock and chains that had moments ago been holding the doors shut were gone. The doors to the well house hung open. Rin felt a shiver run up her spine. This was the second impossible thing that had happened to her in the span of 24-hours. First, the arrow disappearing. Now, the doors. She hesitated at the entrance and decided she would wait for Kaiba to come to. That is until she heard the sound of a car pull up the driveway. It was now or never. So she entered through the door.

Dust hung in the air, undisturbed for a decade. Weeds had sprouted between the boards and vines had occupied the interior of the small room. There were sprouts of green everywhere she looked. Then there was the well. It sat in the centre at the bottom of a few steps. It seemed to lead to the centre of the earth for all the mystic energy she felt hanging in the air. This place had to be magic. She hadn't believe in anything ten seconds ago and now she felt like there was another world hiding behind the one she saw every single day. This world seemed like a cheap imitation compared to the one that this well existed in. She made her way down the steps and approached the bone-eater's well. It too was covered in vines so she pulled some of them away. She felt compelled to run her hands along the wood but before she could touch it, a shadow blocked the light that streamed in from the open door behind her. She turned her head to see Sota. The sun blocked out his features and cast him in shadows.

"You aren't supposed to be here." His voice was off. Too melodic. Too gleeful. It didn't sound anything like him, yet he was standing right in front of her.

"Sota… I-I'm sorry. The door was open. It… I…"

He raised a hand to silence her and then ghosted towards the top of the steps, staring trance like at the well behind her.

"Don't be sorry. You belong down there."

That's when she noticed something was wrong. Sota's eyes were black instead of their usual soft brown. Come to think of it, he didn't smell like he ought to have. He always smelled like soap and like the coffee from the restaurant he worked at. Even at a distance, she knew he would smell that way if he'd spent the day at work. Today, he smelled almost like something else entirely. Like wet soil or thick, sopping moss. She moved away from him, back pressed up against the well's edge. He slowly descended the steps, she realized she had nowhere to run. He kept walking towards her, his eyes all black now, no whites left at all.

"G-Get away from me!" Rin said through gritted teeth.

He said nothing as he closed the gap between them. The closer he got the more she smelled that overpowering scent of earth or mold or moss. What she didn't realize was that she was smelling the scent of death. His head whipped around and his shoulders began to crack, then his neck. His body began to change. Rin tried to run but he caught her braid in his hand and ripped her forcefully back down the stairs. She let out of a cry of pain and fought against him but his grip was practically superhuman. This wasn't Sota. This wasn't anything human. She watched in horror as his face began to split, right in half like it was made of clay. A long tentacle emerged from his eye socket, popping his eye ball right out of place. She needed to get away. She managed to struggle to her feet and as she fought him, she crashed against the well. The bandage she'd reapplied to her wound had come off in their struggle. She winced as the cut came open again and her blood splattered against the edge of the bone-eater's well.

Suddenly, there was a bright and impossibly violet light. She felt nausea and vertigo as though she were being sucked up into a vacuum. The world went dark. Rin felt herself falling, like she'd tripped down a set of stairs. She braced for impact and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She was going to die once she hit the bottom. She was sure of it. But the impact never came. Her head spun, stars swimming in her eyes, and she came to at the bottom of the well.

She looked up, expecting to see the Sota monster peering down at her, but there was nothing. Nothing but white. She looked around her and shivered, realizing that the ground around her was covered in snow.

"Snow?" she murmured. She could see her breath in the air as she spoke. The cold hit her next and the wind blew her dress all around. She'd been dressed for summer not a glacial winter. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to understand what was happening. Then she knew what she needed to do. She was determined, if that monster was still up there, she wasn't going to let it hurt Kaiba. She wasn't going to die at the bottom of this well. She started to climb, her fingers slipping against the icy stones. She climbed up and out of the well and realized that there was nothing but a stark landscape and mountain tops all around her. She could see the mountains stretch on for miles, no end at all in sight. She hopped down out of the well and sank a foot deep in snow. The cold bit into her bare legs like a knife. She began trudging through the snow. It was just like her dream. But nowhere did she see the three legged dog. She saw only endless plains of white and in the distance… nothing. She could have been at the top of Mount Everest for all she knew. She didn't know how she'd gotten here. The cold began to ravage her body and she felt her exposed skin going numb. She walked for as long as she could but eventually she grew tired. Was this really how she was to die? Without ever knowing who she was or where she was meant to be? She fell into the snow and as she drifted into unconsciousness, she heard footsteps approaching. Maybe she wouldn't die after all. She felt a name rattling around in her head. She felt it inch forward and back through her mind, keeping her conscious. As her eyes began to close, as the white world began to dim, she tested it on her lips.

"Sesshomaru."

There was power in that word. There always had been.

* * *

Leagues away, a powerful demon awoke from his sleep within his castle's walls, troubled and panting. He stared at the open window at the distant mountains, yellow eyes focused and intense.

"Jaken. Come." He spoke with a dulcet, careless voice, never raising his volume above what he expected his servant to respond to. Moments later, the small green frog burst through the doorway panting.

"Yes. Forgive me, I…" The servant trailed off upon laying eyes on his master. "Lord Sesshomaru! You are so pale! Are you unwell?!"

Ignoring him, the demon said only, "I'm going to get Rin."

Jaken seemed confused. "Lord Sesshomaru… are you still dreaming? Rin is lost to us. She's gone."

Sesshomaru rose out of bed. He lacked modesty so when the blankets fell around his waist, Jaken turned away and blushed furiously as the dog demon started to dress himself.  
"I'm going to get her all the same. Prepare her room," Sesshomaru said.

Jaken lowered his eyes and stared at the floor. He missed Rin too, as insufferable a girl as she'd been, she'd been his to watch over when Sesshomaru was gone. He'd taught her about the various lands Lord Sesshomau precided over. He'd taught her the houses, their sigils, and their words. He'd secretly smile when she disobeyed him. She'd been his child and he had loved her. He had missed her fiercely when Sesshomaru, Kaede, and Kagome had sent her away. It had always weighed on his mind that in every castle they conquered, every new home they lived in over the past ten years, Sesshomaru had ordered there be three rooms made up specifically. A small modest one for Jaken, the largest for himself, but a third where he always insisted there be a beautiful kimono laid out on the bed. In their house now, there was such a room where a kimono lay, untouched, but Jaken had expected it to remain empty forever. And maybe it would have were it not for what was happening miles away on a mountain top.

"Perhaps, Lord Sesshomaru, we need to start accepting that Rin is never coming back. I do hate to see you this way. I only want-"

"Jaken. Never say that to me again or I will cut you down where you stand."

Jaken heaved a sigh as Sesshomaru left the room. He shook his head but set to work at the task his master had left him with. He laid a kimono out for her though it was much too small to fit her now. Jaken sometimes forgot that humans grew at an entirely different pace than demons did. If he ever saw Rin again, he was expecting the girl that had left them. He couldn't imagine the woman she had become.


	4. The Witch and the Mountain

_Chapter 4: The Witch and the Mountain_

* * *

When Rin awoke, she was startlingly warm, nestled in amongst a bed of furs. Her eyes fluttered and she examined her surroundings. The tent was large, arched, and made of some sort of animal skin. Beautiful paintings decorated the walls in a vibrancy of different colours, depicting strange creatures. The light from a hardy fire bathed everything in warm, glowing light. She felt a dull pain running up and down her arm and lifted injured hand to find that the bandage was gone. The cut was ragged and raw. She stared at it awhile, holding her hand in the air above her face. Another impossible thing. She ran her fingers against the wound and found the texture of it to be the same smooth surface as the obsidian arrowhead that had made the wound in the first place. The colouring her wound had acquired was even more troubling, as it had turned an inky black. This colouring and texture had spread, widening to consume the better part of her palm. The veins in her wrist had begun to run black.

"You've been marked by the hunter god," a voice murmured ominously from across the room. Rin lifted her head to see a woman dressed head to toe in wolf pelts. She did not look friendly.

"A god?" Rin asked.

The woman tossed back her hood and peered down at Rin with impossibly red eyes. "He will follow you to the ends of the earth to have you." Sensing the young girl's fear, the old hag laughed and added, "I've put your master's name back in your head and he has heard your call. You have nothing to fear from me."  
While mildly reassuring, the situation was not altogether comforting. Rin tried to sit up but found that she was nauseous and settled for a half-seated position. "Where are we?"

"The mountains. I heard you knocking at the well's gate and so I brought you here. Much better than where you were meant to go."  
Rin's head swam with memories of Sota. Her cousin's face had split in half. His eye had fallen out of his head and rolled across the ground like a child's discarded marble. "My cousin… he was…" The words died in her mouth. There weren't enough words in her vocabulary to adequately describe what had happened back in the well house.  
"That was a huntsman spirit. They are guardians of the hunter god, Kimura. You woke him up when you let his arrow's head feed on your blood."  
"I didn't let him feed on my blood. I cut myself with it… by mistake."

The old woman laughed, it was not a pleasant sound. It wheezed and rattled out of her chest like it was clawing at her insides just to be out of her. "A very grave mistake. Just the same."

A sudden thought hit her and she felt deeply troubled that not only had she gone so long without thinking about him, but that he was very likely still back outside the shrine with that monster. "Where's Kaiba? Is he safe?"

"Dead perhaps. Who knows what Kimura's disciple will have done with the boy. I have not known Kimura to be forgiving of anyone that takes his playthings. I do not think his centuries of sleep will have made him more forgiving. Drink, girl. It helps calm the nerves."

Rin eyed the woman warily as she offered her what appeared to be wine. The woman was suspicious looking, red eyes aside. She had strange tattoos etched into her face and long white dreadlocks that were encrusted with beads and black threads. Her lips were stained black, as was her tongue, and what few teeth she had left were sharp and pointed like an animals. The hag's fingers brushed against the backs of her hands as she took the offered goblet. Her fingernails felt like razors. More alarmingly was the fact that the old hag had stripped Rin down to nothing and massaged a strange spice-smelling liquid into her skin. She felt like a plucked game bird that was about to be pushed into the oven.

"Who are you?" Rin asked. The old woman waited for her to drink when Rin didn't she looked visibly insulted.

"I am Mama Kameko. I owe your master a debt."

"Master? Look, I really don't understand what you're talking about. How do you know my name?"

"Your name is Rin. Once you were a little girl who ran with demons, now you are a woman grown. I've seen it in the stars. They write about you no matter what time you live in. For you, they spell out great personal suffering, but they also tell me you are to be loved by man, demon and god; all three will vie for your maiden's head."

At this Rin blushed and sipped from cup. She nearly choked on its contents but it did help ease her trembling hands. She listened to what Mama Kameko had to say. Even if it was total nonsense, the longer she spoke the more likely it was that this master she spoke of would come. And she knew that this master, this man, would protect her. She felt sure of that, though she couldn't explain why.

"One will have it. One will die for it. One will go without it. I can't tell you which two will fail. Only you can decide that," Mama Kameko said.  
"Right," Rin said, a little less than convinced. "Why would my story be written up there? I'm just... me."

Mama Kameko chuckled. "All our stories are there, Lady Rin. Some shine brighter than others but you're up there just the same as I am and your friends are, as we all are. We'll all return there someday and our bodies will become the stories of others." She puttered around the tent for awhile longer after that and then drew her hood up over her hair, shrouding her face in darkness once more.

"I'm no lady," Rin said abruptly.

"You will be whatever you want to be. You will have the power to choose soon enough. Tell your master that my debt has been paid." She parted the flaps to the tent and was about to make her leave when she smiled wickedly and said, "And if I see you again, Rin, I'm going to rip out your tenderest parts and eat them whole." Rin recoiled from the witch and watched her disappear outside. For awhile she heard her singing, a jovial tune in a strange language, but her voice faded to nothing until all she could hear was the roar of the rattling winds outside the tent.

The witch Kameko had been a problem. She fed on the insides of virgins, sacrificing them to old gods or using them in dark rituals. A village under Sesshomaru's rule had begged him for his help so he had banished her to the mountains. He had let her leave with her life with the understanding that she was in his debt. He kept peace in his lands but he knew power when he saw it. She had been of no use to him dead. Now she sent him visions of a girl who he recognized immediately as Rin and a strange apparition of the bone-eater's well sitting on the top of the mountain.

The bone-eater's well had been destroyed when Kagome had taken Rin through to the future. Kagome had emerged again, this time without Rin, and the well had disappeared. They'd thought it had gone from the world forever, but then there had been reports of it reappearing and disappearing all over the lands. Sesshomaru had of course investigated all of these claims, but none had proven to be true. Until now.

He had run across the lands when he'd heard the call. In taking on his demon form, he'd arrived on the mountain tops in less than a day. It did not take him long to find the well. It smelled of something otherworldly. It smelled of bones and blood and underneath it all, something sweeter. it was a smell from a long time ago. He paced past the well and followed that sweet scent, of lavender or maybe it was honeysuckle. He smelled the air past the well and in amongst the smells of smoke, cured meat, and strange spices…

"Rin." The smell led him to a tent.

He walked towards the tent and paused at its entrance. He wondered if he would recognize her still. Being a demon, he didn't truly grasp how humans aged, only that they did age. Their lives were like a candle. His was like the ever burning sun. He hadn't seen Rin in almost ten years. She would be a woman grown now. But she would still be Rin. Of that he was sure. She had to be. It gave him the push he needed to go inside.

He parted the tent's flaps and entered, looking around until his golden eyes fell on a human girl, wrapped in wolf pelts. She had a look of determination in her eyes that Sesshomaru instantly admired. Not many people looked at him without fear. Almost no one dared look him in the eye. Yet here she was, her large brown orbs fixed on him and almost daring him to come too close. She was afraid but she was brave in spite of her fear.

"You've changed," Sesshomaru started. He paced closer and knelt beside her. He reached his hand out to her face. She shied away at first, but he took her chin between his fingers and tipped her head backwards to get a better look at her. Her hair fell in long, thick curls down her back. She was naked, beneath the wolf pelts, and beneath them he saw a woman's curves. He was still a man and for a moment, he felt something twist up inside his chest. His heart rate spiked and he had the sudden urge to push his fingers through her hair. He inhaled her scent and while it had changed significantly, it had always had a way of imprinting itself with him.

"Who are you?" she asked incredulously.

"You don't remember?"

"I don't." And then remembering her manners, "I'm sorry."

It did not reach his voice and his expression did not change, but this hurt him. She had taken up residence in his head ever since she'd left. He thought about how she was getting on, what she might have been doing, most importantly he thought about whether or not she would be safe.

Every time he'd saved her or kept her warm or cared for her was lost. The times he'd fought for her… Everything was gone. It was as Kagome had promised. The last of the spiritual energy pulled from the bone-eater's well by Kagome and Kaede had made Rin forget them all. Sesshomaru hadn't wanted her to miss her life in the feudal era if there was any chance that she could live a full and happy life in Kagome's time. He had known that she would have suffered without him and Jaken. He'd been her entire world. She'd been his.

He let go of her chin and pulled his great white fur off his shoulder. He wrapped her up in it and then gathered her up into his arms. Her small hands, not as small as they once had been but still small nonetheless, clutched at the front of his kimono. He felt her fingers brush against the back of his neck.

"It's cold outside, Rin. Hold on."

He noticed her staring at him but the look in her eyes was foreign to him. This was not the same girl he'd sent to the future. This was a woman without a past and maybe there were traces of her childish, smiling, carefree self still remaining, but they were only fragments of the girl she used to be.

He paced out of the tent and then began to transform. This was a power he had amplified over the years. His previous forms had been small in comparison to the size of beast he could shape himself into now. He heard her screaming but felt her grab onto his fur and hold tight all the same as he took off into the snow, bounding across peaks of mountains in a single stride. Eventually, he was sure he heard her laughing and then he was certain that her laughter had turned to cries of joy. With every wild turn and every sudden drop, she let out a scream of delight and it made his heart ache with silent pleasure.

It was Rin, but she had changed and he didn't think the change was bad.


	5. And Something Awoke

_Chapter 5: And Something Awoke_

* * *

When the great dog landed in the courtyard of a miraculous and sprawling palace, it lowered itself down to allow the human girl to slide off its back. Rin's heart pounded. She'd never felt adrenaline like that in her entire life. She never thought she would again. What could have ever compared to riding a giant, mythical beast through the skies?

Rin looked around, taking in her surroundings. Her mind swam with the change of scenery. Instead of ice and snow, she found the courtyard to be cast in a warm, autumnal glow. Yellow fans of ginkgo floated down around her. They settled against almost everything in sight. Heavy stone benches, beautiful rock gardens, the raised steps leading up to the wooden hallways that sprawled farther than she could see, all covered in a veil of gold. Rin had seen feudal-era styled places before, but they had just been replicas. If they weren't replicas, they were so old that the frames hardly held any of the original character, frames stripped so many times of their original beings that they couldn't remember who it was they'd originally been built to be.

Rin clutched the furs to her chest, still glaringly aware that she was naked beneath them. She didn't have long to dwell on this however for the massive dog at her side began to transform. It shrank drastically in size and then was covered in a blinding white light that continued to shrink and shift until it took the form of the strange man from before. When the light faded, there he stood once more. She finally looked at him in the warmth of the fading light. Sesshomaru had changed since she had seen him last and yet, she saw him as he was like it was the very first time.

He was broad and muscled, having spent almost a decade waging wars and slaying those who threatened the people of his inherited land. Still, he was lithe and coiled beneath the heavier set shoulders, a quiet whisper of the young demon he had once been. He still bore the twinned red markings on his cheeks. The purple moon on his forehead now bore some silver ornamentation and tiny amethyst gemstones that drew the eye right to it. His robes too had become even more elaborate, but now he wore the colours of his house; silver, black, and white. The sleeves were patterned with hexagons and delicate silver and black petals. The armour he wore was heavier and more fearsome to behold than it ever had been. If she had known him though, Rin would have noticed that his eyes hadn't changed. They were still as vibrantly gold and, in stark contrast to the rest of his appearance, warm, as they ever had been.

They stood apart in the courtyard. She stared at him and he at her, but neither of them moved to go to the other. They might have spent years travelling together, but the years had shifted them apart and their paths were no longer as intertwined as they had been many years ago.

"You're Sesshomaru." That name from before. She had remembered it but it was just a name, no ties, no true meaning, just a jumble of letters and now a face. It was him. Rin knew it to be so, even before she'd asked the question.

She noted that he nodded in affirmation but before she could approach him she heard the pattering of little feet. Before she could react, she was being attacked by a small green creature. She screamed in horror, trying to swat him off but it refused to let go of her. She stumbled backwards, and the furs got tangled up and dropped from her finger tips. The creature was relentless and seemed to pay very little mind to her current state of undress. She realized then that the creature was not only wearing clothes, but that he wasn't attacking her at all. It… he... was sobbing and hugging her legs tightly. She looked down at him, still trying to grasp wildly at the great white fur that Sesshomaru had given her. Her brows knitted together and she tried to piece together what was happening and why it made sense that the frog might have known her or rather why a demon frog could speak at all.

"Jaken." The name came. But it didn't come in the way that Sesshomaru's had, through the magic coaxing of a witch. It came to her from a place in her head. The same place that had always questioned her parents' death and her sense of displacement in modern day Tokyo.

"Oh Rin! I have missed you so dearly," Jaken cried.

"Jaken. She doesn't remember you," Sesshomaru said. He paced over and pulled Jaken off her by the scruff of his neck and plopped him on the ground at his side. Rin blushed heavily as Sesshomaru picked the furs back up to cover her exposed flesh. His fingers brushed against her shoulders, his pointed claws sending tiny sparks across her flesh.

"I don't have anything to wear," she said.

"Allow me to take you to your chambers Rin! I prepared them for you just like I was asked."

Rin hesitated a moment and then did the only you could do when everything seemed suddenly ridiculously turned on its head; she smiled. "Please… I don't mean to be rude, but can you tell me where I am?" She ran a hand anxiously through her hair, undoing the remnants of her braid and sending her long tresses cascading over her shoulder.

She looked imploringly to Sesshomaru. But Sesshomaru was no longer looking at her, well he was, but when her hand had passed through her hair, a nervous habit, he had caught sight of the black mark on her palm. He suddenly grabbed onto her hand with his and forced it open with his fingers.

"H-hey…" She tried to pull her hand back but his grip on her wrist was so strong that she could only tug helplessly at it.

"How did you get this?" he asked.

Rin stared down at the impossible wound. It had truly crystallized in the same obsidian as the arrow head and it no longer hurt. Not even when Sesshomaru ran his thumbs against its surface.

"What is it Lord Sesshomaru?" Jaken climbed to the top of his staff and balanced on it. He took on a very grave expression when he saw what the dog demon was looking at. "That's not possible."

"I cut it. Is this more magic stuff? Because I can't deal with more magic stuffright now. You're a talking frog wearing a hat and you-"

"I'm what?" Sesshomaru cut her off harshly, taking offence at both her tone and her inability to see how much in danger she truly was. The icy cut of his voice was even harsher than the winds atop the mountain had been. She knew she shouldn't push the issue of his improbability any further.

"Sorry. Can I get cleaned up before we get into all this?! I think that woman might have marinated me in something like a piece of meat and I just need a second to think… Please?" She looked up at Sesshomaru with the same eyes she'd used on Kaiba to break into the well. Instead of crumbling beneath them as Kaiba had, Sesshomaru smirked. Jaken nearly slipped off the top of his staff, staring between his master and the girl who had forgotten everything.

"Take Rin to the bath house. Find her something appropriate to wear." Sesshomaru took a handful of his long, white fur, and tore it from her clutches, reclaiming it and leaving Rin clutching frantically at the wolf pelts from Mama Kameko's tent. She glared after Sesshomaru's stream of silver hair as he paced in the opposite direction. He passed through one of the many sliding doors and was gone with a flourish of his white and silver kimono.

* * *

Sesshomaru retreated to the library and closed the doors behind him. He stood very still for a long while and then he pulled out the sword at his waist and began to slice through tables and chairs and shelves. Paper exploded in violent showers around him with every swing of his blade. He hadn't been so angry in a very long time. He hadn't felt anything at all. But then, no one had ever marred something that was so dear to him. No one would have dared.

Rin had died twice before. Once when he'd first found her, when she'd meant nothing more to him than a pebble on the ground, when he had brought her back just to see if he could. But the second time, she had died in his search for more power. He'd been selfish and he had couldn't save her. The feeling of being unable to rescue her that second time, that feeling of completely helplessness and sorrow… When she had been revived, he had vowed to himself to protect her at all costs. No matter what he had to suffer, no matter what he had to lose. She was the only person that had ever been important to him and she'd grown only more precious to him in her absence. When he'd seen her atop that mountain, he had had realized that she was someone he could never be without again.

 _But she's a human and you're of demonkind._

It had always been this thought that pulled him back from his thoughts of her. This point of contention was what always, in the end, made him try to remember that she was human and that she would never live as long as he needed her to. So he had to pretend that she would go on and on forever by his side. That she alone would just keep living despite the natural human condition of a tragically short life.

When he had sent her away, he had tried to picture her with a human husband, having children, and dying at the end of it all in Kagome's time. It had once made him happy, knowing she would have lived a full life. It had been enough for him when she'd been a child because he had only ever seen the possibilities of a child's life. Now she was a woman, things had changed. Their time together was even more precious because he could see the effects of almost ten years in every detail of her appearance.

When she was young, people would often remark that he was fatherly towards her. But he had never seen her as his child. He'd only ever seen the radiant human girl she was. She was a light that could not be snuffed out, someone that he needed to protect at all costs. Beyond that, he'd pledged himself as her guardian and keeper for as long as she lived.

When he'd sensed her need to be amongst her own kind and live with Kaede, he'd become more scarce and left her to grow amongst her own kind. Through phases of her short life, he had adapted to whatever she had needed him to be. It was why his mother had called her his beloved all those years ago. Not his ward, not his child, but his _beloved_. It was why he had brought her gifts when she'd lived with Kaede, so that she might always think of him, even though they were apart.

Once, he had loved her without question. Now, he loved her with something so much more. He knew it to be true. He knew because he'd stared into her eyes and felt his whole existence shift to a different path.

He suddenly looked around the obliterated room, as if snapping back to reality. He sat in a tall backed chair using his unsheathed sword to balance against, its point thrust downward through one of the destroyed books. His hands quivered with uninhibited rage. That mark on her hand… That went beyond demons and priestesses, monsters and witches. It was dormant, but living. Like a piece of someone else stitched right into the fabric that made up Rin. It was unsettling and invasive. He had only seen such treachery a handful of times in his life and such wounds usually pointed to one thing and one thing only.

Gods were rare. Most of them spent several lifetimes sleeping, but when they awoke, they left destruction in their wake. They didn't care who they hurt and they all wanted something different, making it impossible for Sesshomaru to pinpoint what a god would have wanted with Rin or how it might have found her living in Kagome's time. Why had it chosen her? He really was grateful for Mama Kameko, even if she was probably back to her old ways as he sat pondering. If she hadn't pulled Rin through that well, he wasn't sure where she would have ended up or with what.

He pulled his sword back and slid it into its sheath. Then with a flourish he drew Tenseiga. "Heavenly Moon Shell," he said in an even voice. Tenseiga pulsed and radiated with a sheer purple light. It filled the room with a delicate fog and when the fog lifted, everything he had destroyed had been made whole again. He resheathed Tenseiga and stood up, grabbing a scroll from a stack on the table and unrolling it.

All he knew for sure was that Rin was in danger and whatever had put its mark on her, had claimed her as theirs, would soon need to answer to him.

* * *

Rin had lost track of time in the bath house. She'd expected a tub, but instead what Jaken had lead her to was a hot spring that someone had built a room around. The room was walled but it had no roof so that when you bathed you could tilt your head back and see the stars.

"Take as long as you need Rin," Jaken said. He laid out a yellow and orange kimono. It was sewn and embroidered with gold thread and had delicate white flowers lining both sleeves.

 _It's beautiful._ Rin thought. _It's not me._

Regardless, she thanked Jaken, ushering him out the door, and told him she might soak awhile. She at last dropped the furs from Mama Kameko and stepped down into the deep spring. The water came up to about her waist and the steam settled her skin. She stood awhile, running her hands against the top of the water, palms down. She didn't hear Sesshomaru approach, but she felt him watching her with the same cold indifference he'd shown her naked body before. She turned her head slightly so that she could see him.

"I thought for a second when I woke up in this place, I'd get to see my parents again. But they're dead. I know that now. I don't know how I know, but I feel it."

"Yes. They've been gone since I knew you. You've always been alone."

She lowered herself down into the water and knelt on the rocky floor. She gestured for Sesshomaru to sit, flinching when she realized he was staring at the mark on her outstretched hand. She submerged it back into the water and then wet her hair, letting the sweat and grime wash away into the hot water. When she looked back to Sesshomaru he was seated cross-legged on the hardwood flooring that surrounded the springs, his swords laid out beside him.

"Can you tell me who I am?"

For the next hour, she sat and soaked and listened while he told her about the way they once had been.

* * *

In a giant, hollow tree situated at the centre of a deep and dark forest, a man sat in amongst the roots of a black, obsidian throne. He'd been sealed within the tree for almost two hundred years and now he was free. He was fearsome to behold. His long brown hair was thick and braided with bone and the same onyx ornamentation that his throne had been cast from. His eyes were the colour of forged gold, large pools of vibrant color with a small dot of black pupil in their centres. He wore armour that was black as night and he leaned against a gigantic longbow, his weapon of choice. It, in contrast to the rest of him, was light in colour. It was carved from an ancient piece of pale oak.

This was a man born for war, if he had been born at all. He'd been in existence for so long that he had forgotten if he had been born or made. Maybe he always just _been_. He had survived millenniums, of that he was certain. He'd seen civilizations rise from the dirt and fall back into that whence they'd come. He had put a fair few of them there himself. He was both man and beast, earth and sea. Not the greatest god that ever there had been, but one of the most savage. He'd been given more names than a man changes shirts in a lifetime. But there was only one that mattered, only one that was truly his.

"And what are you to her?" His voice came out in languid somber, dripping forth from between rows of perfectly white, razor sharp teeth.

"I love her," Kaiba said.

"Does she love you?"

"Yes, though not as I would like her to," Kaiba said.

"Would you beat her bloody if I told you to do it?"

"Yes," Kaiba said.

"Would you kill her if I told you to do it?"

"Yes," Kaiba said.

The god Kimura smiled and it was a wicked, wicked thing. The hunt had begun and the players of were all falling into place like pieces on a game board. The girl had escaped him once, when he had sent one of his changelings through to the strange world out of time. He'd watched as she fell down the well, something he had not expected. He was not yet strong enough to leave his grove or he would have collected her himself. But he hadn't come away empty handed. Rin's young lover was now under his influence and Kimura knew he could use him to his advantage. But first, he would need to know his enemy.


	6. Demon Oath

_Chapter 6: Demon Oath_

* * *

It was a lot to swallow. Demons, jewel shards, magic swords, old family feuds, spirits, priestesses; they all sounded like Grandpa Higurashi's folk tales, stories Rin now wished she had taken more seriously. After her bath, Sesshomaru had walked her straight to her chambers and joined her at her behest in front of a great metal chimney that pulsated heat. He wrapped his fur about her shoulders and they settled down across from each other in a pile of fine cushions and pillows. She felt lost, even more than she'd felt in Tokyo. At least there, she'd had Kaiba and her family. Here, she had nothing but stories. She had nothing at all.

She stared through the grate of the chimney and watched the flames dance behind it for a long while. Sesshomaru remained silent. It was a comforting sort of silence. The kind that didn't pry or require filling, it was just there as she needed it.

"When I was little I used to have dreams about you," she said after a long while of thinking and staring.

Sesshomaru frowned and contemplated this for a moment. "That's impossible."

Rin smiled and hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin atop her knees. "Me being here with you is impossible. _You're_ impossible. Yet, here I am and here you are." She pressed on and he listened to her, hanging on her every sentence like every one would be the last one he heard. "I never knew it was you, in my dreams, but now I know. I used to have this one dream where I was dead and I know I was dead because there were these little spirits trying to drag me away. I would kick and scream and tell them I couldn't leave you. Then you would always cut them away with this great white light." It was almost a fond memory, despite its morbid overtures. It overwhelmed her with a sudden jolt of fury. She clenched her hands into fists and slammed them against her shins, anger welling up inside of her, hot tears spilling from her wide eyes. Why had they done this? Why was she made to be a girl out of time when she'd always been meant to be here? To die here? Rin was pulled from the haze of her thoughts when Sesshomaru extended one of his hands. She felt it begin to curl against hers. But she pulled away.

"I would have rather _died_ than forget that. How could you let anyone take those things from me?!"

"You would have died and if the fever hadn't killed you, then your memories of me, of Jaken, and of all the rest would have killed you. You would have been living a life apart from the world you were in. Humans are not able to be without the things they love. It drives them mad. It makes them empty. Kagome said it herself. When she was without Inuyasha, back in her own time, she felt the world moving around her but never felt like she was truly part of it. She was able to return. We were certain that you never would."

Yet here she was.

"Yet here I am."

"Yet here you are."

Rin let this sit in her mind and pondered it for a moment before deciding that it had not been his choice to make.

"You abandoned me there. I've been searching for answers in all the wrong places and making myself crazy trying to make sense of dreams that were never dreams at all. I've told myself a thousand times that every dream, every thought, was just nonsense..." She realized she might have been being harsh on him but she felt betrayed. He'd never given her any say in this. She knew herself now better than she ever had, but only from the lips of another. A missing piece had been put back into place, but it sat jaggedly and without consistency. She was unsure of everything, almost everything. One thing she was sure of: the girl she'd imagined herself to be, the little human girl that Sesshomaru had loved, wouldn't have ever chosen to go anywhere without him.

"I sent you away to save your life," he said. She could see the confusion written across his face, but couldn't truly comprehend how unsettling such uncertainty was for Sesshomaru himself. He had never been unsure of anything before. Always steadfast, always set in his ways. It all came crumbling apart when it came to her. He was no longer a lord, son of one of the most powerful demons of all ages, he was just a young man looking at a young woman and no one living or dead had ever made him feel this way.

"But I don't remember, not properly," Rin said helplessly.

"But I do. I remember every moment. And do you know what singularly resounds in every aspect of these moments, Rin?" When she didn't answer, he leaned closer. Her heart caught in her throat. The only other man who had been this close to her had been Kaiba. This did not feel at all like when Kaiba had kissed her on the swings in their secret spot. The space between she and Sesshomaru was white hot. It sent a shiver up the length of her back, made her face burn with heat, with need. It seared her to her very core. She'd never needed anyone. She found that, most spectacularly, she very much needed Lord Sesshomaru.

"What?" she finally gasped, breaking the silence and trying to evade his molten eyed gaze. But when she turned her head, he caught her chin between his fingers and kept her focused on him, tipped her head right back so that she could only stare into him as he stared back at her.

"Every moment I have ever spent with you has been a ray of sunlight in an otherwise storm-filled existence. You part every cloud, you overcome every darkness, and then once you've chased the storms away there is only ever you. I knew this then and I know this now," he said.

Rin swallowed the lump in her throat, determined to show her strength, unwilling to cast her gaze aside. "You don't know me anymore," she said.

"Maybe not. But you are Rin and you are worth more to me than my life and the lives of every man, woman, child, and demon in this entire world. Whether I know you, whether I am near you, you are what I was meant to protect."

Rin was trying to sum up the ways in which she could tell him that he was wrong about her. That he had to be. She was just Rin Higurashi. Her parents were dead so she lived in a shrine with her aunt, her grandfather, and her cousin. She was late for school almost every day and she spent her time playing with swords and hanging out with her best (see: only) friend Kaiba. Mostly everyone found her strange and while she had never felt like she belonged, and she'd dreamed of running away and finding a place she did belong, she'd never thought her place would be here. She never imagined herself with a handsome man… handsome demon… wrapped in luxurious silks and preciously stoned ornaments in the feudal era. She never imagined she could be strong or powerful, but at his side, she felt that she could be capable of just about anything she had nerve enough to try. She had always seen herself as a girl but one evening spent listening to Sesshomaru made her feel as though she were older, like she was suddenly very sure of who she was. It was likely the way he spoke, the evenness and sureness of tone. He never wavered. She'd never met anyone like him. She knew she would likely never meet anyone like him again. Despite her initial anger, she found it difficult to remain angry with _him_.

"Sesshomaru… I…"

But before she could tell him that she didn't understand, that who she was didn't make sense to her anymore, and that she felt compelled to learn more at his side, the great doors to her room slid open. The force of their opening reverberated through the strong beams of the door frame. Sesshomaru's hand flew back from her like he'd been scalded by water. He put himself between her and the door instinctively, with impossible speed, and glared into the darkness. There was no one there. Not that Rin could see. However, Sesshomaru's demon eyes picked up a very different sight. There, standing in the middle of the doorway, was a girl. But not a girl like Rin. Long thick strands of black hair fell around her bare translucent flesh. Beneath her grey skin he could see her organs, delicate and the colour of pale jade. Her very heart beat before his eyes. Leaves were imprinted right into her skin, like they were a part of her. Her eyes, black, gazed listlessly into his. Her parched lips pulled back to reveal a smile of jagged black teeth, sharp like knives.

"Lord Sesshomaru. I am a servant of Kimura, God of Forest and Hunt." The nymph's voice rang in a deep baritone that was jarring to hear come forth from the lips of a female entity.

Rin tugged on Sesshomaru's sleeve. She saw nothing, the creature's veil too powerful for her human eyes, but her hand pulsed. It made her nauseous. It hurt. When the odd girl spoke, she did not hear her words. It felt instead like a thousand glasses shattering inside her head. She flinched away from it and tried to bite back a cry of shock.

"How dare you enter this place? I am lord of these lands and you lack respect."

"No respect for the dog who has stolen my lord's bounty," the girl gestured to Rin, who was now incapacitated by her pain.

Sesshomaru felt Rin's tiny hand gripped tightly against the cloth of his kimono and saw, disturbingly, that the colour had drained from her face. Her eyes, normally full of life, turned dark. Her body remained but she seemed to be lost inside her own mind. Her cursed hand twitched at her side, fingers curling and uncurling at a disturbing rate, pulsing with a sharp dark aura. Black veins began to trace along her cheeks and forehead like an ugly black spiderweb.

"He will not have her," Sesshomaru said.

The nymph laughed, but it was not a joyful sound. "My lord has tasked me with delivering this message. Surrender Lady Rin and she will live by my lord's side as his wife. She will bear him terrible children who will destroy this earth. Deny him this and you will watch her die screaming. She will not live long, Lord Sesshomaru. Not with that mark. Only Kimura can remove the cursed arrow. I've seen it in the roots of many trees."

Sesshomaru suddenly rose himself up, his fingers shone like silver and with a slash of his hand, he cut the girl through and she erupted into a blinding silver light. When the light dimmed, there stood only a replica of the girl, carved immaculately out of wood. Three long gashes cut deeply into the wood until the statue begin to slide to ribbons and came undone. Rin gasped suddenly for air. He lingered only a moment, glaring at the pile of sticks and bramble where the nymph had once stood, before gathering her up into his arms and holding her trembling body to his chest. She felt cold even bundled against him, even so close to the crackling flames of the small chimney.

"What was that?" Rin gasped.

"That was a tree nymph. Merely a vassal." Sesshomaru paused, he took Rin's trembling hand in his. He eyed the black glean of her cursed hand. He looked at it with nonchalance, turning it slightly so that the firelight caught its edges and shone back at him with an inky glow. "It seems you have been marked by a god. I'm going to kill him for you."


	7. Sword Girl

_Chapter 7: Sword Girl_

* * *

Rin awoke to the sound of rain splattering against the roof of Sesshomaru's palace. She was filled with momentary confusion until the events of the past few days had caught up with her. She felt something warm wrapped around her and her eyes focused on Sesshomaru's furs, drawn in around her like a protective shroud. She sat up slowly and realized that Sesshomaru must have put her into bed after she had fallen asleep. She was surprised to see the demon, seated on the floor in the corner of her room. His head leaned back up against a thick wooden beam, he slept. There was nothing, she thought, more serene than his expression. It was as expressionless as it was in the day, but touched by the comfort and peace of deep sleep. She found herself staring, wide-eyed, at the demon lord and blushed fiercely when his gold eyes opened and stared back at her. His eyes were tinged with dark circles beneath them. He did not look well-rested, but despite that fact he rose to his feet and reattached his hilt to the belt at his side.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice unwaveringly formal despite the informality of being in a woman's bedroom.

She thought about this question for a long period of time. How _did_ she feel? Physically she felt alright. Mentally? That was a different story. How was she supposed to feel? So much was happening. She was worried about the monster that had revealed itself back at the Higurashi's shrine and she was scared for Kaiba. What wasn't at the forefront of her mind, was herself. This was all her fault and the people who raised her might have been in trouble. Kaiba might have been dead. Now, she was putting the people around her here at risk. She had to do something.

"I want to find this hunter god… this… _Kimura_ ," she said.

"I will," he said.

"Yeah, I know, but I want to come with you."

"No," Sesshomaru shot back instantly, "It's too dangerous."

Rin smirked despite the gravity of the situation and despite the fact that everything about it frightened her. She was terrified. But she was done showing it. This wasn't a dream. It was happening and she had to do something about it. She needed to play a part in her fate because as a child, she'd never had a choice. Now that she was older, she wouldn't let others decide for her. Not again. "I'm a dangerous person to know, Sesshomaru. I can fight."

A bemused expression crossed his face momentarily, betraying his usual mask of impassivity. He paced closer and knelt at her side.

"Not like I can. Not like Kimura will be able to," he insisted.

Rin, however, was determined. She knew herself well enough to know she could not stay behind and do nothing. She wasn't a coward. "Meet me in the courtyard in an hour. I need wooden practice swords." She got up out of bed and began to usher him towards the door, "No demon strength, no demon speed, just you and I. If I land even one hit on you, we do this together. Don't worry, you can take on Kimura. But I want to be there. I want to see him fall." She slid the door closed and rested her cursed hand against the door. Her smile faded and she stared at the black crystal forming against her knuckles. The wound festered and spread, but it didn't hurt her. Not physically. It was a reminder; he was a part of her now. Could he feel her? See her right now? The thought made her shudder.

"And what makes you think I'll agree to your terms?" Sesshomaru said from outside the door.

"Because. I'm Rin and you're Sesshomaru. We are meant to be by each other's sides," she said it naturally, like it was something she'd always known. Her face grew hot when the words left her lips and she slid the door open a crack to backpedal, to retract her surprising sentimentality, but he had already disappeared.

* * *

When Rin walked into the courtyard, the rain had stopped but the air was muggy and filled with lightning. In the distance she could hear a roll of thunder. Sesshomaru waited for her with two wooden swords, just as she had asked. Jaken appeared at Rin's side, re-voicing his concern for her safety, how Sesshomaru didn't like to play foolish games, how she didn't stand a chance.

"He'll be sloppy. He leans too much on his demon strengths. He doesn't account for what might happen if they are taken away," Rin explained.

She had tied her long swath of hair into a thick braid that she pushed over her shoulder. It hung in a thick plait right to the small of her back. Pants had been a hard thing to find inside the palace but she'd finally gotten a hold of a baggy blue pair with floral white pattern splashed along the seams. They were held up by a great purple ribbon she'd salvaged from one of the many kimono in her dressing room. A shirt had been another difficult thing to find so she'd just wrapped her chest up in bandages. They gave her full chest the support that it lacked and allowed her more fluid movement.

"I think this exercise is pointless," Sesshomaru said as she approached.

"It's the only way you'll let me come with you. Let me prove that I can hold my own." She turned her back to glance at Jaken. When she did Sesshomaru tossed one of the wooden swords at her back, expecting for it to hit her and clatter to the ground. He meant to prove a point, that she was not cut out for battle, that should would never hold her own. But this was not a point he succeeded in making. With almost inhuman reflexes of her own, Rin turned and grabbed the sword from the air, rotating into an offensive position.

Jaken's eyes widened and he stumbled back out of the way, giving them space. "L-Lord Sesshomaru I don't think that this is wise..."

Sesshomaru however had a frustrated look on his face and cast his bulkier armour down before drawing his own practice sword and pacing towards her. He wasted no time in his assault. He came at her hard and with almost impossible strength. Their wooden blades crashed together and Rin reversed, slipping out to her left and using his own weight to stagger him. She saw an opening and cast a blow aiming for the shoulder only for him to block, facing away from her and his own sword swung horizontally over his shoulders. He cast a glance over his shoulder. He did not look as amused as he had outside of her bedroom door. In fact he looked irritated.

A small group of servants had gathered around the edges of the courtyard. It was rare to see a woman fight. It was rarer still to see their lord fighting in this manner. Whenever he sparred, it was with fellow demons and the battles took place far away from people where nothing could be maimed or destroyed. They'd never seen him take arms against a human.

"You're quick. I'll give you that," Sesshomaru muttered through gritted teeth. "But are you strong?"

Rin gasped as he slammed his sword upward and threw a light jab of his elbow into her stomach. She felt the wind rush out of her lungs and she staggered backwards, switching to the defensive. Her footwork was neat and precise. Years of kendo had seen to that. Her instincts were quick. He came back at her with a series of slashing motions that she parried but with great difficulty. Each time their swords met, her wrists ached and screamed under the pressure, but still she held on until he faked to his left and landed a sharp blow to right arm. She cried out in pain and recoiled away from him only to be struck again on the left. She bit back tears and switched back to the offensive. They moved with blinding speed across the courtyard, testing each other's footwork. He landed hits and hesitated every time to see if she would yield. Every time she smirked and came back at him with a different combination of steps.

"I'm not going to yield, if that's what you're thinking."

"You will not win this, Rin. It's foolish to try," he replied.

"It's never foolish to try if you think you can succeed." It was an old saying from a kendo instructor that she had trained under for several years. It was a piece of something from her life in Tokyo, and she found herself, for a brief moment, missing the calmness of it. This errant thought was however struck away when Lord Sesshomaru's sword caught the edge of her wrist. Pain bloomed along the length of her arm but she gritted through it.

This back and forth continued. Sesshomaru never attacked directly, only threw off her blows and spun out to defend against a parry or jab. This went on for awhile until finally Sesshomaru landed a hit that knocked Rin off her feet and hard onto her back. The servants gasped and Sesshomaru dropped his sword. He hurried to Rin's side and knelt beside her.

"Are you alright?" He asked genuinely, concern passing through his eyes. But he realized his mistake too late when Rin smiled and from her back landed a suckerpunch to his waiting palm, inches from his face. His eyes widened and then he glared down at her. She grinned mischievously up at him and the servants applauded for while he had caught her fist, the tip of her sword pressed firmly into his chest.

"Like I said. Sloppy."

Sesshomaru stared, wide-eyed at the practice sword and pulled her to her feet. "You fight dishonourably."

"So does Kimura," Rin retorted. "Please. Let me help you find him. I won't engage him. I won't do anything stupid and I won't get in your way."

Sesshomaru stared down at her and raised his finger to her lips. For a moment she thought he might cup her face in his palm as he had before, but instead he used the edge of his kimono to wipe a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth.

"It's dangerous," he repeated, though this time with a hushed urgency, like he was failing to explain something important to her. He spoke quietly, like his concern for her was a secret shared between them.

"Then you shouldn't be alone. Besides... I sort of... I meant what I said earlier. You shouldn't be alone. You protected me when I was young and now I would like to be there to try and protect you."

"I don't need protecting," Sesshomaru said, pulling his hand away from her abruptly.

Rin looked over at the dispatching servants and lowered her voice. "Everyone needs to be protected sometimes. Even someone like you. Even if it's by someone like me."

She tried to hide a satisfied smirk when Sesshomaru's expression piqued into something almost similar to embarrassment. His eyes darted sideways, betraying only the smallest hint that her words had struck some unreachable cord with him.

She released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding when finally he said, "It's your choice to make. I won't stop you."

The rain began to pour down from the heavens, slamming down in fat globules all around them. Rin didn't know it yet, but it was a sign of worse things yet to come.

"When do we begin?" she asked.

"We leave for Misogi village in a few days. Their ruler asked me to dispatch demons that have been troubling the villagers. They are under my rule, so I must go. But I suspect that it may lead us closer to Kimura. I'll have A-Un brought for you. We will draw less attention to ourselves if we go by the road." Sesshomaru put an instinctive arm around her shoulders, using the wide sleeve of his kimono to shelter her head from the rain like an umbrella. He drew her close and together they headed inside.

"H-hey Sesshomaru? What's an A-Un?"

* * *

Kaiba's hands were clenched into fists. He stood atop the courtyard roof, invisible to all thanks to Kimura's dark blessing. His back was rigid and his eyes were narrowed. Why was Rin letting this demon so close? Kaiba and Rin had known each other for years. He'd _loved_ her for years and now she was with this demon, this Sesshomaru. He longed to go to her, to tell her he would save her and take her home. But a darker thought urged him to stay where he was, observe only, and recognize that maybe she didn't want to go home. Maybe this was her home now. Maybe he _was_ forgotten.

 _She doesn't love you. Look and see the mate she's chosen, see how easily she forgets._

Kimura's voice rang out like he was standing right next to him, but Kaiba stood alone and he knew the voice was just in his head. Rage flowed through him thicker and darker than his own blood. How could she betray him?! After all they'd been through, after all he'd done for her?

He watched them disappear inside and all reasonable thought left him. Kaiba had been cored to empty. There was nothing left but envy and anger. It planted itself deep within and bloomed in a feverish need for violence and retribution. It was not natural. It was Kimura's control.

"How do I kill a demon?"

 _Patience. I will show you._


	8. Scent

***** AUTHOR'S NOTE :** **Thank you all so much for your comments. I'm pretty self-conscious about my writing so it means the world that someone out there gets enjoyment from what I do. Just a fair warning that there is triggering and mature content in the upcoming chapters. Thank you so much for your continued support. :)**

 **\- Candyspell**

 _Chapter 8: Scent_

* * *

Rin walked between the rows of trees, burnt black in the wake of a fire she could still smell. Ashes filled her every breath. The heat was stifling though not unbearable and whatever flame had once ravaged the forest she now stood in had burnt itself out. Now all that remained were the carcasses of dead trees and the bones of larger creatures that hadn't been able to escape the fire. She looked down at her feet and thought absently that she wished she were wearing shoes for the mess of soot and ash had turned her skin a startling black color. She pushed back the branch of a tree only to feel it turn to dust against her palm. It fell to the ground and became nothing. The sky raged with black smog of smoke or cloud she couldn't be certain. It seemed to have a ceiling, like she was on the inside of a twisted snow globe.

"Sesshomaru?"

She called out into the darkness but there was no reply. Silence went on forever and it was how she knew she must have been dreaming. This was not unlike the dreams she used to have in Tokyo. The dreams of a white dog running after her had never made sense until she'd been reunited with Sesshomaru. Maybe this was just another one of those telling dreams, dreams that tried to piece together the memories of her broken past. So she waited and she looked for a sign of movement around her. When it didn't come she started to walk a bit faster, never really getting anywhere, until finally she caught sight of someone. He appeared from the shadows. No, rather, he was a shadow. Dark and lithe like blackness itself. His eyes were liquified gold and they stared right at her. She had a terrible feeling inside her chest, like someone was suddenly sucking all the air right out of her. She felt compelled to run yet she remained cemented in place.

"Who are you?" She called out to the man with the golden eyes and regretted it instantly. He seemed to be drawn closer with every reverberation of her echoing voice.

Finally, she willed herself to move, breaking free from whatever hold he'd had on her, but as she turned to run something caught up her feet and held them together. She toppled over flat on her chest. She tried to scramble away but her legs were tied together. When she looked back to see what she'd been caught by she realized that black snaking thorns had tied her legs together. She managed to flip herself over onto her back and tried scooting along on the ground, away from him. He drew nearer and the more she struggled, the more the vines constricted her. That's when she began to notice the vines were moving, like they had a life of their own. Their thorns caught and snagged at her skin, gently at first, and then she screamed out in pain as they tore at her flesh, cutting into her skin as they completely immobilized her. Her kimono was torn to shreds, exposing her knees, her upper thighs. She managed to sit up and tug it down once before two restraints erupted forth from the ground and pinned her wrists above her head. She thrashed violently now as the man stood right above her and she knew him. Even though she had never seen him or heard him, she knew who he was.

"Do not fight me, my love. It will hurt even more."

She watched in horror as he pulled his belt from his waist and knelt down at her feet. She realized what he meant to do. She locked her knees together, despite being unable to sit up, unable to run. She bit back tears refusing to cry, yet fear vocalized itself in a violent scream as the vines tied about her ankles wrenched her legs apart. She realized then that it was futile. He was going to have her no matter what she did, no matter how she screamed. She stared up at the dark abyssaic sky and tears stung her eyes. She felt his face between her thighs and she tried to block it out, tried to imagine that Sesshomaru was coming. That he would save her. That she would get to see him one last time. All hope vanished as Kimura bore his teeth down into her thigh. It felt like lava was surging through her, like she was incinerating from the inside out. It was enough pain to wake her.

* * *

Sesshomaru observed Rin carefully over their breakfast of river fish and eggs. She was pale and every sip of water she took was from a trembling hand. She spilled more than she drank. Another alarming fact was that for someone who had a rather voracious appetite, she'd barely touched her food. Maybe she didn't like it, maybe she was nervous about the task at hand, but more likely than not she was hiding something from him. When he'd returned from scouting their camping area, Jaken had informed him that Rin had awoken most violently. She'd been trembling all over and as white as the moon overhead. She had insisted that everything was fine when things clearly were not. This was, Sesshomaru noted, not a trait he usually minded in a woman. It gave him an out to be as dismissive as he pleased. But when it came to Rin, things were different. He didn't like not knowing what troubled her but he found it hard to just ask. Thus, there was a silent impasse over breakfast that carried on into midday when they pulled up along the road so that he, or rather Jaken, could better explain the task at hand.

"Misogi is a village hidden behind a waterfall. Their leader is Ryushi," the old frog began. "He is a very secretive man so most of the village's affairs are run by his daughter Ryuka. She and Lord Sesshomaru were quite close once but unfortunately..." Jaken trailed off and looked up to his master but Sesshomaru was hardly listening. He didn't care what Jaken told Rin of Ryuka because in his mind there was very little to tell.

She'd been a past dalliance. She'd known where she stood just as he had known his place with her. Or at least he'd thought he had. She must have been in a very bad position if she'd swallowed her enormous pride and asked him for help. Their last words had suggested that she would have preferred to knowingly drink poison before inviting him into her company again. Things between them had not ended well. The situation must have been especially. But it was not for the village or even Ryuka that he went for. It was the sense of a demonic aura that pulled him. If they were to find Kimura, they needed intel or a lead. Something more substantial than the ominous warning of a silly wood nymph. They would not wait for a god to take his time and toy with them as he saw fit. Sesshomaru would find him and kill him. He didn't care what he wanted with Rin. None of it mattered and though it was troubling to think that the god was attracted to Rin, it was simply not something that would ever happen so long as he breathed. Nothing would touch her, nothing would harm her. Bringing her along might have put her in harm's way, but as he saw it she was already in harm's way and it was better that she be at his side. If Kimura came for her, he would be ready.

Sesshomaru suspected Kimura was still weak. He'd awoken from a long sleep, must have. Or else he would have come for Rin already. The inkling had come to him when he'd been researching Kimura. In his past forms the old god was known to cause women living in forested areas to disappear. He devoured, raped, and tortured them for sport and for strength. And so Misogi was where they needed to be.

"We're to go and investigate reports of women disappearing in the surrounding forests. Whether it be by the hands of men or something far more sinister, time will tell," Jaken continued.

He watched Rin's face for a change of expression, something that would indicate to him what troubles ailed her. But she listened, impassive as stone, and he was left with nothing but unease resting in the pit of his stomach. Why did she make him feel such anguish? To see her in pain was worse than any pain he'd ever felt. To see her struggling with the burden of her cursed hand was torture. He knew it hurt her. He knew she suffered. Yet what could he do or say? He didn't know how to intervene with someone's feelings because he'd never had any desire to. Now he desperately wanted to comfort her, to show some form of reassurance. It was his rigid sense of propriety that kept him untangled from the brambly mess of her feelings. It was a demon's fierce heart that caused such internal frustration and when they made to head down the river towards Misogi it was that same fierce heart that compelled him to reach for her hand and stop her from mounting A-Un.

"It's not too late to turn back. You need only speak the words and-"

"Why do you look at me like that?" Rin interjected.

"And how is that?" Sesshomaru asked, genuinely perplexed by the sudden fire that blazed behind Rin's huge dark eyes.

He let go of her hand when she tugged on it but shadowed her just the same when she made to mount A-Un. He put two certain hands at her waist and hoisted her up onto the creature's back and held tight to the its reins, not letting her move on from him so dismissively. When she reached down and made to pull the reins from him, his strength stilled her and he found himself face to face with her, so close that her scent drowned out all other scents. She filled his senses. She smelled of spring water and something new. He'd noticed it before, a faint floral smell that most women had. But so close, with her breath inches from his nose and her dark hair splayed out over her shoulder, exposed neck craned, he felt its effect stirring in the depths of his stomach. He stared at her hard, tracing the faint plumpness in her lower lip. That scent brought out the beast in him and there _was_ a part that was more beast than man. Demons who walked in the skin of man were still, after all, demons at their core. Her scent triggered something in him, entranced him. He wanted to put one of his fingertips against her mouth, feel the velvet of her skin.

He was only faintly attentive to her verbal response.

"Like I'm fragile! I'm not a child anymore," she said. He noticed her resolve to remain annoyed snagged. It became knotted with their proximity, the way they'd absently fallen into a moment of what Sesshomaru could only describe as accidental intimacy. Her cheeks flushed and he found a great new pleasure in this. He enjoyed the effect that his closeness had on her. He reminded himself of his self-control, his impeccable discipline, and he managed to draw himself away from the pull of her scent and reacquaint himself with the world around him.

"No. You aren't." He released A-Un's reins, almost letting her slide right over the edge of the saddle.

He closed himself off from the moment, from her, his thoughts moving in unclear, jolting patterns. Her curses fell on deaf ears. He regained his composure, yet the scent of her still lingered. Had it always had such pull? It troubled him. She'd always been a weakness of his. He knew it. Inuyasha, Kagome, Jaken... they all knew it. His enemies had all known it, years ago. He had never been able to make much sense of what he had felt for her back then... She'd never been his daughter, only something precious. Now here they were, she a woman grown, and it had only just occurred to him how beautiful she really was. And her humanity glared back at him, her fragility, how very few years a human life was made up of, the circumstances of their reunion... It all swirled around into a great and horrible mess. He could only move forward and hope to shut her out, hope for his own sanity that he would never fully realize how dear she was to him. It was a future of loss and it wasn't a future at all. But he could extend it. He could keep her alive and see that she got to live out all of her short years. Even if he had to sacrifice a few years on his end, it would be worth it. It was the only thing of which he was absolutely certain.


End file.
